Passings | Cartoonist Vince Davis, an animator and a contributor to underground comics in the 1960s and '70s, died on May 6 from kidney failure. [Mark Evanier, Mark Kausler]
Publishing | Just two days after it confirmed the cancellation of Shojo Beat, Viz Media launched IKKI, a free online version of the Japanese anthology, which the company will use to debut new manga and solicit feedback as to what works should be released in print.
The first series showcased on the website is Daisuke Igarashi's Children of the Sea. Upcoming works will include Natsume Ono's House of Five Leaves and Shunju Aono's I'll Give It My All ... Tomorrow. [Publishers Weekly, VIZBlog]
Legal | Jeff Trexler offers some solid analysis of Christopher Handley's guilty plea, and notes the case is unlikely to provide any legal precedent. [Blog@]
Publishing | Roman Dirge has signed an exclusive deal with U.K.'s Titan Books to publish new Lenore comics and reissue the complete backlist. The series previously was released by SLG Publishing. [ICv2.com]
Comic strips | How are cartoonists coping with disappearing newspapers and the shrinking comics section? [Los Angeles Times]
Creators | Editor Stephen W. Saffel discusses The Best of Simon and Kirby, and the collaborations of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby: "Their first hit was Captain America, and the breakthrough was understanding that the greatest villain of all was Hitler. Their second blockbuster wasn't a costumed here, but the Boy Commandos -- a military feature, and the next time they had a million-seller, it was to create the romance comic book. No other team could have so brilliantly spanned the genres, at the same time setting the bar for everyone else." [Omnivoracious]
Creators | Viz Media's new online magazine has a brief Q&A with Daisuke Igarashi, creator of the supernatural mystery Children of the Sea. [IKKI]
Creators | Dave Roman and Raina Telgemeier talk about their shojo graphic novel X-Men: Misfits. [Shojo Beat]
Creators | Writer Sterling Gates chats about his recent DC Comics work. [NewsOK]
Creators | Jeff Lemire unveils the teaser trailer for his Vertigo graphic novel The Nobody. [Jeff Lemire]
Manga | Lori Henderson rounds up Twitter accounts for prominent manga bloggers and publishers. [Manga Xanadu]
Fandom | Ralph Chicorel's collection of Golden Age comics brought in $518,000 at auction. [Journal-Sentinel]